QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

16km SE of New Idria, CA

· 14 km deep · released about 10 lb of TNT

10 km30 km60 km120 km N San Benito County 58 kmMonterey County 68 kmKings County 72 kmFresno County 96 kmMerced County 101 kmSan Luis Obispo County 102 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 1.7 (md)
Depth
14 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
San Benito County, 58 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 2694 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 10 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,100,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 95× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 10 lb of TNT

Energy from the Gutenberg–Richter relation (log10E = 1.5M + 4.8), rounded to two figures; bar length is magnitude, which is already a logarithm of energy. Magnitudes of past earthquakes from the USGS catalogue.

Where

Epicentre 36.2987, -120.5655. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
San Benito County, CA 58 km (36 mi) SE of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Monterey County, CA 68 km (42 mi) E of here earthquakes near Monterey County
Kings County, CA 72 km (45 mi) WNW of here earthquakes near Kings County
Fresno County, CA 96 km (60 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Fresno County
Merced County, CA 101 km (63 mi) S of here earthquakes near Merced County
San Luis Obispo County, CA 102 km (63 mi) N of here earthquakes near San Luis Obispo County

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

50 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 1.5 17km NE of San Ardo, CA
  2. 1.6 15km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  3. 2.2 20km NW of Parkfield, CA
  4. 1.6 15km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  5. 1.9 7km NW of Huron, CA
  6. 1.7 21km NW of Parkfield, CA
  7. 1.5 20km NE of San Lucas, CA
  8. 2.0 9km SE of Pinnacles, CA
  9. 1.8 16km SSE of New Idria, CA
  10. 2.5 16km NW of Parkfield, CA
  11. 1.6 23km SW of New Idria, CA
  12. 2.9 13km NW of New Idria, CA
  13. 1.7 9km ENE of Coalinga, CA
  14. 2.4 14km NE of Coalinga, CA
  15. 1.7 5km NW of Parkfield, CA

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 4.0 on 2018-11-27 — it released about 3,000 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.